"The central doctrine of Christianity, then, is not that God is a bastard. It is, in the words of the late Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe, that if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you."--Terry Eagleton

"It is impossible for me to say in my book one word about all that music has meant in my life. How then can I hope to be understood?--Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice."--Bryan Stevenson

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Last thoughts of the night....

Or "Before I go to bed" thoughts. Or maybe even: "If you can't welcome the stranger because he doesn't believe as you believe: screw him!"

Perhaps it's because I was up until 3 a.m. Sunday morning (don't ask), and got up at 7 to take my daughter and two of her friends to the Texas Renaissance Festival. A splendid time was had by all, and simply being out of the daily/weekly/monthly/annual routine (although this is the second year in a row we've gone) was enough to make me see life again as something definitely worth living.

Then I came home and read the intertoobz. Or rather, the comments to this post at Huffington Post. The third time I read some "atheist" insisting atheism had no doctrine (and yet insisting "God" is a "being," and so cannot have existence, or have it's existence proven, or something: an article of faith among all atheists who have no clue about theology OR philosophy of religion), I threw up my hands in despair over the number of people who couldn't see the author's point for their own personal myopia about how THEY WERE RIGHT and anyone who disagreed (ANYONE!) COULD JUST SUCK IT!

So I went to Whiskey Fire, to re-read a post I'm going to use in the future, and again, I made the mistake of reading the comments. And after about the fourth person talking about how "the most wonderful time of the year" actually SUCKS!, I decided real life really was like high school, and we're all trapped in a perpetual adolescence that the intertubes let us talk about and enjoy publicly and endlessly.

I mean, I know you can't expect truly intelligent conversation from any open forum where any person with access and a keyboard can respond to the topic, but honestly: "THE STUPID! IT BURNS!!!!!!"

I just gotta stay away from that stuff. And from eating chocolate covered espresso beans after downing a whole pot of coffee. No, that wasn't the reason for last night; but this experience brought back those memories.

I'm gettin' too old for this....*

*adding: everytime I read these yammering idiots (the uninformed atheists, I mean), I reflect on the fact that I am much more comfortable with ambiguity than they are, and much more aware of the complexities of existence, and none of this is a reason to feel superior in anyway. I tell myself that, anyway.